As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an Information Handling System (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. Variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, global communications, etc. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and/or networking systems.
The inventors hereof have recognized that it would be beneficial for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to be able to receive and provide management support for off-the-shelf peripherals that are installed within an IHS prior to shipping (e.g., by the IHS manufacturer) and/or at a later time (e.g., by the end user). Unfortunately, in the case of Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) devices, for example, real-time management is currently achieved via the Inter-Integrated Circuit (i2C) bus. More generally, available Out-of-Band (OOB) management of peripheral devices is restricted to approved devices only, and various devices do have support for real-time capabilities.
Previous attempts to provide real-time OOB management of peripheral devices require Operating System (OS)-based OEM software agents, hardware modifications, or both. Accordingly, to address these, and other problems, the inventors hereof have developed systems and methods for providing OOB real-time inventory and configuration of OEM devices using Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) services.